Michigan State football hoping for depth on offensive line: 'We're gonna need them all'

EAST LANSING — What Jim Michalczik wants more than anything is to find the best five linemen to revitalize Michigan State football ’s offense.

How and when the Spartans get to that point remains a work in progress, the new offensive line coach admits.

“We're gonna find out pretty soon,” Michalczik said Thursday, two days before the team’s second scrimmage of preseason camp and two weeks out from the opener against Florida Atlantic. “I think anytime you're doing something, you're always trying to get better. And I don't mean to be cliché this year. But where can we get? …

“Fundamentally, we got to keep working on some things, pushing through things, the mental part of it, the competitive part of it. I think every day, we've gotten better, but we're still not where we want to be."

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It appears MSU is set in a few spots along the line, with practices now in their third week ahead of the Aug. 30 opening of the Jonathan Smith era a at Spartan Stadium (7 p.m., Big Ten Network). That's even though only one of the Spartans' linemen have any notable experience at MSU.

Two transfers are expected to be key pieces on the interior. Tanner Miller, a 6-foot-2, 290-pound sixth-year senior who followed Michalczik and Smith from Oregon State, will be at center after starting three times there and 10 other times last season at right guard for the Beavers. Miller was named a second-team All-American by ESPN.com and first-team All-Pac 12 honoree last season.

The other addition, fifth-year senior Luke Newman, is expected to slot into the left guard spot but also has worked at center some during camp. The 6-4, 315-pound native of Bloomfield Hills arrives from Holy Cross as a two-time Football Championship Subdivision All-America left tackle, making the move up in competition level and to the interior of the line in hopes of boosting his visibility and résumé for NFL teams next spring.

“As a group, we enjoy being around each other. We enjoy this grind of camp,” Miller said. “And I think we're at a spot right now where we can call each other out and hold each other accountable in order to take that next step and keep building and stacking days.”

Michalczik said Brandon Baldwin continues to work as one of the top tackles after starting 10 games on the left side a year ago but, the former Oregon State position coach added, the fifth-year senior is versatile enough to play on both edges. Backup center and fifth-year senior Dallas Fincher (6-4, 314) is the only other returning lineman to have started for MSU (with experience in the first and last games of 2023).

Two others also are in the mix at tackle. Fourth-year junior Ashton Lepo (6-7, 306) got 73 of his 96 snaps in the final four games last season and worked opposite Baldwin (6-7, 330) at right tackle in the spring. Redshirt freshman Stanton Ramil (6-7, 305), a four-star prep prospect from Alabama, suffered a right knee injury at the end of last year’s preseason and sat out all last season and was limited much of this spring.

“I think those three are kind of separated from the rest right now. ... I think right now, our thing is, OK, who's the next guy?” Michalczik said. “Who's that young guy, who can be the next guy that steps up, and the guy after that? Because we're gonna need them all as the season goes on.”

The other ongoing competition will be at right guard, where MSU lost 2023 starters Geno VanDeMark and Kevin Wigenton II to transfers. VanDeMark left for Alabama after going through spring practices under Michalczik, while Wigenton left following the coaching change and enrolled at Illinois in January. The Spartans lost two starting right tackles — Spencer Brown (Oklahoma) and Ethan Boyd (Colorado, Utah State) — to the portal, along with graduation departures of center Nick Samac and left guard J.D. Duplain. Two others (Keyshawn Blackstock to Arkansas and Braden Miller to California) also left the program.

Michalczik said Kristian “Big Dooley” Phillips appears to have a slight edge now over fellow third-year junior Gavin Broscious, with Saturday’s second scrimmage critical for determining starting and reserve roles. Phillips (6-4, 319) got 33 snaps at right guard while and worked on special teams in 11 games last season, while Broscious (6-4, 302) missed all of last season with a left knee injury that required surgery after redshirting in 2022. Another former four-star prospect, redshirt freshman Cole Dellinger (6-4, 301), also is working his way back from an unspecified injury that cost him all of 2023, and Smith earlier this week pointed to true freshman Rakeem Johnson (6-3, 270) as a young player who has flashed during camp.

“I never have a five. We just want to figure out who the best five is, and then who's the next five, and who's six, who's seven, and where do we fit it and how does it work,” Michalczik said of the competition. “Like I tell people, I don't want to make decisions until I have to. Today's five might be different tomorrow, or No. 6 might be 5 tomorrow. Their job during this time is to go compete and show what they can do. ...

“We don't have five veteran guys with huge contracts that, like the NFL, that this guy is gonna play no matter what. I think they've had a great attitude of trying to get better every day. And if we can just keep doing that, we're gonna end up being pretty good.”

To say a reset up front was necessary might be underselling it.

MSU went 4-8, missing a bowl game for the third time in four years, and posted the worst single-season rushing average (89.5 yards per game) in program history. And the season ended against Penn State with one of the most atrocious performances ever — just 53 total yards (the fewest in a game in school history), minus-35 rushing yards (second-fewest), five first downs (fourth-fewest) and seven of the 25 sacks the line allowed all season.

Michalczik knows he and his reconfigured group have their work cut out for them this fall.

“There is no baseline,” he said. “We're just going to get as good as we can get.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com . Follow him @chrissolari .

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football hoping for depth on offensive line: 'We're gonna need them all'